Parents, Educators Ponder Burdens On Black Students in White Schools

Newton, Mass--"Most people assume that when black families move to
the suburbs, they have it made," but many of the problems of the black
middle class have simply been "camouflaged" and are only now being
acknowledged, according to Charles F. Smith Jr, associate professor of
education at Boston College.

Mr. Smith expressed that view in an address to black parents and
educators from suburban Boston who met here recently to discuss the
social and educational problems of black students in predominantly
white schools. He was one of a group of speakers who offered varying
perspectives on those problems during the day-long meeting, which was
sponsored jointly by the Black Citizens of Newton (bcon) and the Black
Faculty and Administrators Association of Boston College.

Although a wealth of information has been compiled on the problems
of black students in the nation's urban schools, few studies have
examined the problems of blacks in white suburban schools, speakers
agreed.

And although urban areas still have a higher percentage of blacks
than do the suburbs, the Census Bureau reports that increasing numbers
of blacks have moved outward to suburban areas--and often, therefore,
to predominantly white schools.

According to 1978 data compiled by the National Center for Education
Statistics, about 40 percent of the nation's public schools are
predominantly white.

The community of Newton illustrates the situation that prompted the
bcon conference, according to Samuel A. Turner, president of the
organization. He said there are about 2,000 blacks in the community of
about 85,000 persons.

At Newton North High School, there are about 135 black students in a
student population of 2,100. Scott Guild, a housemaster at the high
school, said that 77 of the 135 black students are bused to the school
from Boston under the metco program, a one-way student transfer plan
funded by the state to promote racial balance in the schools.

"We live in little pockets here," Mr. Smith explained. "We're strewn
thoughout the whole community so that when confronted with problems
there's no one to turn to."

When "The Jeffersons," the black middle-class family depicted on the
popular television series, "moved up to the East Side," all of their
children's problems were not solved, Mr. Smith said, adding that the
same holds true for most of the nation's black middle-class
families.

"The schools assume that because these families are middle class
they know what to do [to help their children adjust]," Mr. Smith
said.

The problems confronting most black pupils, Mr. Smith and others
agreed, are mainly problems of adjustment. Several speakers noted the
difficulties black students have "fitting in," both because they are so
few in number and because they come from different cultures.

Speakers cited as problems the lack of adequate "support systems"
and poor communication between black students and white teachers, which
often results in "unncessary conflicts." The consequence, they said, is
that black students frequently feel a sense of "loneliness and
isolation."

A Matter of Understanding

But Pauline Black, a social worker for the Lexington schools,
maintained that conflicts between black and white students are not
always racially motivated. "Very often, the problems are not racial,
but a matter of understanding how to accept things," she said.

To illustrate her point, Ms. Black told of a teacher who asked her
students "to draw the flag of the country which their ancestors came
from." That assignment, she said, was impossible and a source of
frustration because most black children do not know where their
ancestors came from.

Similarly, she said, black students who attend predominantly white
schools--especially younger pupils--are often vulnerable because they
have little knowledge of the use of busing to achieve desegregation in
the schools and how that has affected them. "Sometimes children don't
understand why they're getting an education, that the process is
important, and that they are not there just to waste time," she
said.

Black students, moreover, need to have good verbal skills, she said,
because when they run into trouble they have to speak up for themselves
and "many of them are not used to that."

"They need to learn the power of words," she said. "Those who don't
have it feel the difference."

Recalling a former student who never talked in school, Robert
Freeman--a faculty member at Noble and Greenough School--said her
silence reflected feelings of isolation and loneliness that other black
students express in different ways.

Both Mr. Freeman and Ms. Black said it is important for black
students to have adequate support systems. "The isolation and
loneliness can be helped by having black faculty and [by] including
black history in the curricula," Mr. Freeman said, adding that
accomplishing those tasks may require some pressure from black
parents.

"As families move upward," Ms. Black noted, "both parents must work,
and the time available to their children goes down." She said that
leaves the children "with no one to relate to at home."

Despite the hectic schedule of working parents, Ms. Black contended
that they should still try to maintain close contact with their
children's school. "Once parents get their children into a good school,
they feel they don't have to be as involved," she said. But, she added,
''good schools" are the result of parental involvement, and black
parents should be as active as possible.

Vol. 02, Issue 33

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